Beyond the Infinite Dark, Vol 2
by 1LoneShadow
Summary: Haseo has left Equestria, and now the Mane six have been given a mission of their own; to study The World. The will met new friends, and go on adventures. But will they figure out what's actually going on? Or not? Re-uploaded. Takes place during Reminisce. AU. Sequel to BTID, Vol 1.
1. Prologue

Prologue

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The days following Haseo's departure from Equestria were normal. During that time the lives of the ponies slowly became normal again, and AIDA stopped appearing in Equestria. In the library Twilight was reading some books, at the farm Applejack was doing her chores, Rainbow Dash was flying and practicing, in the boutique Rarity was finishing an order for a client, at her cottage Fluttershy was tending to her animals' needs, and Pinkie Pie was doing… Pinkie Pie things in who knows where. But right now, let's join Spike and Twilight at the library, Spike stayed up late last night, and was just waking up from a nice dream.

"Hey, Twilight," Said Spike groggily. "what are you doing?"

"Oh, good morning, Spike. I'm not doing anything special. When did you go to be last night?"

"Oh, around Uhhh... 1, I think..."

"1 PM?! Spike, keep that up and you'll be in no condition to help me or Rarity. And we both know how that will turn out." She said almost completely unsurprised.

"Yeah, yeah I know. So what do you want for breakfast?" Asked Spike.

"Oh, I already ate. It'll be just you and owlowiscious this time." Replied Twilight.

"Oh, okay then." Right at the moment he said "then", his cheeks swelled and was forced into the air for a second as a letter appeared in green flames with the royal seal on it. It could only mean one thing. "What the? It's from the princess."

"Well, what does it say?" Asked Twilight inquisitively. Spike unrolled the letter and began reading it aloud. it said:

_To my faithful Student Twilight, I am using this letter to inform you that a mysterious giant gold colored ring has appeared in town square next to the mayor's house. I believe this to be an entrance into Haseo's world. I am assigning you and your friends to go to The World and study it. Report your findings to me when you're done. _

_Your mentor, Princess Celestia of Equestria._

_P.S. Don't worry about staying there for a little while if you need to. We'll take care of things._

Twilight was exited to get a new assignment, especially if it was in another world. And they would potentially get to meet Haseo again. Who knew what new things she would learn in a society with almost no laws. Without further delay she packed her saddlebags and left the library, leaving Spike in charge.

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She gathered her friends and went to town square to see what this giant ring was. It certainly looked like a platform, but it was considerably larger and more elaborate than what she and her friends saw a few days ago. It was a giant ring with two even smaller rings inside it; connected. It had blue spheres of energy rotating in the smallest ring, and a crest at the top of the largest ring. The mares just looked at it with questions raised.

"So, Twilight. What the hay, is that thing?" Asked Applejack.

"Princess Celestia said it was a portal to Haseo's world. But when she said 'giant gold colored ring' I didn't think it would look like this. I'd better take some notes." Replied Twilight.

"My, these rings look simply amazing, I feel all sorts of inspiration coming to me!" Said Rarity, excitedly giggling.

"Twilight, are we going to Haseo's world?" Asked Fluttershy curiously.

"Yeah, we're going, it's because of a new assignment from Princess Celestia. Although I'm not sure about what will happen or who or what we'll see there." Replied Twilight.

"Well whatever it is, I'm sure I can handle anything 'The World' brings my way!" Exclaimed Rainbow Dash arrogantly. The rest of the ponies looked at her in irritation. "I-I mean we... heh, heh, heh." She said awkwardly.

"Ooh, Ooh! I can't wait to see what happens when we go in!" Said Pinkie Pie, exited. "I bet there'll be monsters and otherworldly beings that stand on two legs, or have fur! I wonder if they'll have giant swords" too, just like Haseo!" She seemed strangely exited about potentially dangerous or frightening circumstances. "It'll be so much fun!"

"Oh my... that doesn't sound very fun, at all, Pinkie Pie." Said Fluttershy hiding in her mane.

"Don't worry sugarcube, we'll protect you." Said Applejack trying to comforting her friend; it didn't do a whole lot to help the yellow pegasus as she was still a little bit scared of what might lie beyond the unknown portal into 'The World'.

Twilight took a deep breath. "Okay girls, ready to go?" The rest of them nodded. They cautiously walked closer to the mysterious giant ring. Then they tried to get in through many means; magic, brute force, magic words, none of it worked. Then they tried just thinking of going to The World; Twilight honestly didn't expect it to work, but it did work; blue rings appeared around the ponies bodies as they turned into blue spheres and flew into the ring. The girls had no idea what they were getting into...

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"Yes... they did it... excellent." Said a voice as it's owner plotted it's next move.

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I'm exited about this next entry. Tell me what you think.


	2. Reunions

Chapter 2 Reunions

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The girls felt a little bit dizzy after the teleportation and currently just stand in some type of dome-shaped building; with a giant ring just like the one they saw in town in the center of it. They were just standing there a little bit afraid at the sight of some of these creatures. Some only had hair on their heads, like Haseo, while others had hair all over their bodies. Some even had cat ears. In their heads they were freaking out over just about everything they were seeing. But they (mostly Rarity) freaked out even more when they saw their own bodies. They had no fur and hair was only existent on their heads. They only stood oin two legs as well. Their hair had the same color with similar styles, but wore clothes that didn't look like they were from Equestria. Fluttershy wore a long green sleeveless dress with a formal feel to it. Pinkie Pie wore a pink sleeveless shirt with a collar and slightly baggy white shorts. Applejack was wearing bronze colored plate armor on her chest and elbows, exposing her midriff, brown pants, and armored boots. Rainbow Dash looked similar to an anime inspired kunoichi, with a sky blue two-piece out fit with a black undershirt. Rarity wore a small royal purple dress lined in white and a hat of the same color. And finally, Twilight was wearing a thigh length dress with long sleeves, thigh length boots of the same color that were somehow connected to it, and metal accents. The girls all had a symbol resembling their cutie mark either on their body, face, or outfit. Applejack's symbol was on her exposed midriff, Fluttershy's and Pinkie's were on their foreheads, Rainbow Dash's was on her right arm, and everyone else's was on their outfit in some pattern; Rarity had diamond symbols lined on the hat and the bottom of the dress, and Twilight's was was on her dress in a pattern.

Surprisingly, they got used to walking on two legs pretty quickly and soon afterwards, began searching for Haseo. If anyone knew about this world, it was him (plus they knew Haseo personally). Twilight said it would be best if they split up and looked for him, and that's what they did; they agreed to meet back at the inside of the dome once they gave up. They left the dome through the large doors and saw a truly memorable sight. The most beautiful sunset that they had ever seen... ever. The town simply looked... beautiful; had that antiquated sort of charm to it and Rarity's head was now brimming with inspiration. But she thought, (No! Now is not the time for that. I need to help look for Haseo). After a while, they went back to the dome, having made no progress. Just then, they started hearing voices. People were talking. They turned around and saw who it was.

"Gee, thanks for showing us how to play the game. You guys were really nice!" Said a young looking boy who the girls assumed was a player. He had another boy with him, whom they also assumed was a player.

"No problem. Our pleasure!" Said a short, round player with pink hair, orange magician's robes, really small feat, and a dog-like face.

"Yeah, don't hesitate to message us if you forge anything. And don't forget to have fun while you're playing!" Said the fourth player, an extremely handsome young man with long brown hair tied into a ponytail with green clothing and gloves.

"Okay, we will." Said the other boy. "Goodbye!" He bid the man and beast before going into the dome. Then the man and beast noticed the girls because they were in their way and attempted to start a conversation with them.

"Oh, hey there. Are you all new players?" He said to them.

"...They don't look like new players, their levels are around our own." Said the beast, looking at their status, "But I doubt I've seen them before. Maybe they passed by while I was helping other customers at the shop." He wondered. Rarity was the first to speak.

"Actually, we're not new players, but it's been such a long time. Could you boys remind us how to play?" Asked Rarity politely, making up a quick white lie. "Oh, and my name is Rarity, it's a pleasure to meet you sir."

"It's nice to meet you too. I'm Silabus." He said introducing himself.

"And I'm Gaspard!" Said the beast. "We're part of the noob-support guild called Canard!"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle." Introduced the Purple haired one.

"Name's Applejack, a pleasure to meet you, Silabus, Gaspard." She reached out and gave them one of her brutal handshakes.

"I'm Pinkie Pie! And this is my first time here in The World!" Shouted Pinkie Pie excitedly."

"I'm Rainbow Dash, best new player in The World!" Shouted Rainbow Dash, with her familiar pride.

"A-and, my name is... fluttershy." Said Fluttershy so quietly you'd barely here a sound.

"Uh, what?" Questioned Silabus.

"My name is, fluttershy." She said again.

"One more time please, I didn't quite get it."

"...Was it, Fluttershy?" Asked Gaspard.

"Yes..." She quietly answered.

"So do you need a reminder on how to play the game? We'll be happy to do it, seeing as how players tend to skip reading the manual."

"That would be lovely, thank you."

"Okay then, let's start with the basics." Said Silabus, giving them and Gaspard their member addresses.

"Member addresses are an address system used for communicating with friends in The World. When you want to invite someone to join your party, check the 'Party' window in the menu, and check their status. If they're online, you can invite them. But if their status says 'Busy', it means that they're in The World, but are involved with something else and don't want to be disturbed. You guys should probably exchange member addresses too." Lectured Gaspard. The girls did so and made the exchange, with some help from Silabus and Gaspard. Twilight was also taking mental notes so she could eventually tell Princess Celestia about it.

"Now, we should start by going to an area. Let's see, some good area words would be..."

"Actually Silabus, we need your help with something else." Said Twilight.

"Well, okay, what is it?"

"We're looking for a player named Haseo. Do you know where he is?"

"Wait, you know Haseo?" Asked Gaspard, surprised. "Where did you hear about him?" He assumed that they had heard about him from other players.

"We met him." Answered Rainbow Dash, proving the two boys wrong.

"In the real world?"

"Um, not exactly." Answered Fluttershy.

"So... did you chat with him online." Asked Silabus.

"Uh, something like that." Answered Rainbow Dash.

"Well, okay, we'll take you to him. We're actually friends of Haseo."

"Oh, thank you Silabus, you're such a gentleman." Said Rarity.

"Well, let's go." Said Silabus, leading the girls to, somewhere. He sent a message to Haseo telling him to meet him and Gaspard at the dome.

(He'll notice me someday. And then I'll have the last laugh, again.) Thought Rarity, of Silabus.

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The group went into the dome to wait for him. Still wondering what the giant ring was, Twilight started a conversation. "Silabus, could you tell me what this... ring is?"

"That's the Chaos Gate, it's like a teleportation device you use to go to areas in The World. The kind of area you go too depends on certain keywords that you get. The keywords determine terrain, monster and item level, elemental attributes, and so on." Responded Silabus.

"I see..." She said, taking mental notes. While meeting Haseo again was a given, actually seeing him wasn't automatic. It would take another ten minutes or so before he appeared. Twilight took more mental notes while they waited, looking at the Chaos Gate while players were warping in. Ten minutes had passes by then and at last, from the familiar blue rings, a player appeared; with armor that looked just as demonic if not even more demonic than King Sombra ever was. It was spikey, black, red, had three spikes on both shoulders, and a giant metallic lizard tail hanging from the back of the metallic collar. It was Haseo, in his 3rd form as an adept rogue. The girls didn't recognize him at first, and screamed and hid behind each other. But then, "H-Haseo? Is-is that you?" Asked Fluttershy, concerned about what happened to her friend.

"Huh? Who-who are you?"

"Oh come on, Haseo! Don't you recognize us?" Asked Rainbow Dash, furious.

"...Wait? Rainbow Dash?!" Haseo recognized all of them at that moment. It was all clear, they looked different, but they were still the same ponies that he had grown on.

"The one and only! It's been a while, Haseo." She said to him.

"Y-yeah, what are you doing here? And how did you get here in the first place?" He asked, perplexed.

"We came here as part of an assignment from Princess Celestia." Explained Twilight, who along with the other girls, recovered from the shock of seeing Haseo looking like a demon. "We're here to study The World. We came here from the Chaos Gate in the town square." Haseo said nothing, he was busy being perplexed about how a Chaos Gate could be in an area that isn't a town and how NPCs (them specifically) could join The World like normal players, or what the admins would think of this. He then noticed that Rarity was looking at him in a way that perfectly blended fear and disappointment. And he didn't figure out why until Rarity spoke to him.

"Haseo! I can't believe this! Why in the whole wide world of Equestria would you do something like this?! That outfit looks absolutely hideous!" She shouted at the adept rogue. "You are coming with me!" She grabbed his wrist and dragged him off, yet she didn't even know where she was heading off with him. Haseo struggled to get out, but couldn't. She had a grip of steel.

"...Is she always like that?" Wondered Silabus.

"You have no idea." Responded Applejack.

Rarity then came back and asked, "Um, where can I go to buy some new clothing?" The other characters laughed.

"You know you can't really buy new outfits for your character, right?" Asked Silabus, still giggling slightly.

"Y-you can't! But why? How do you stay in touch with fashion in this game?"

"We don't." Responded Haseo.

"What?! What a strange world you live in." Haseo forcefully broke free from her grip.

"Look, do you want to learn how to play the game or not?" He asked them, somewhat impatiently.

"That was rude." Said Twilight. "But yes, I would like to learn how to play, learning the rules of the game is a good way to learn how the beings here behave. Would you mind teaching us?" She asked him.

"...Fine."

"Yay! A new game!" Said Pinkie, jumping enthusiastically. They exchanged member addresses and split into three parties so they could be taught at the same time. Haseo went with Twilight and Rainbow Dash, Silabus went with Rarity and Applejack, and Gaspard went with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. They entered the command to go to another area of the game, to begin the girls' lesson. They would have a lot to learn.

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Despite my initially low confidence in this sequel, I'm going at it full time now. Please tell me what you think.


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